Death Qualified by Kate Wilhelm Read Free Book Online

plain?"
     
        He shrugged. It was a lifting of one shoulder, a slight movement with his left hand, exactly the way his father always shrugged. More and more often Nell saw Lucas in her son. Right now he was studying her surreptitiously, the way Lucas used to do, to gauge her mood, to test her anger. Dark curly hair, brown eyes, dexterity, these were the products of her genes; his lithe and long body, the expressions that crossed his face, his gestures, those were his legacy from his father.
     
        He finished his evaluation of her mood and grinned widely at her.
     
        "What did you shoot, anyway?"
     
        "A beer can. Come on, let's get up to the house." As they walked, she slipped her arm across his shoulders and told him about the men who had come to cut down the fir tree. No way would she tell him about the body in the river; he would learn about that all too soon. It occurred to her quite abruptly that she was under siege. Strangers coming to cut down her trees. Bodies appearing in her river, and thank God Travis hadn't seen that. She knew now that he had not. He would have been unable to conceal his excitement, maybe even a touch of fear. And Lucas was in the state again. Just two days ago his parents had called to tell her: Lucas was back. She realized she was holding the rifle stock so hard her hand was aching.
     
        FIVE
     
        when nell and Travis entered the house, the phone was ringing. She answered, and Travis went out the front door to get the library books. Nell's daughter, Carol, was on the line, pleading to be allowed to stay at her friend's house for a cookout. Michele's mother would bring her home by ten. After speaking with Michele's mother, Nell said sure. She hung up as Travis came tearing in to announce that he was going to go with James Gresham to look at a sick pig; he needed his sweatshirt for later. Standing behind him was James, who was a veterinarian, and Nell's tenant. James was a tall black man, very dark, soft-spoken, and at the moment he was smiling broadly as he listened to Travis inform his mother about his plans.
     
        "I asked him," James said, standing at the open door.
     
        "We'll stop on the way home for a burger, if that's okay.
     
        Tawna has a class tonight. A guy's gotta eat, all that."
     
        After a moment she nodded.
     
        "But you keep out of the way, Travis. You do exactly what James tells you. Where is the patient?" she asked James then. Travis was already pounding up the stairs for his sweatshirt.
     
        James told her, nearly all the way in to Eugene, thirty miles.
     
        "I'm going over to Doc's to take Jessica her books," Nell said.
     
        "If I'm not here when you get back, will you keep Travis at your house for a while?"
     
        "You bet. No problem."
     
        Travis returned, panting, sweating, dragging a sweatshirt on the floor behind him.
     
        "Will you have to cut the pig open? Can I see the guts?" He waved to Nell casually and walked out with James to the station wagon, listening intently to what James was telling him.
     
        Now, at five-thirty, Nell walked through the woods, around the monolithic rock, on a trail that was hardly even perceptible, to the Burchard house. Nell and Doc were the only two who used the trail regularly, except for Travis, who managed to cover all the woods around here. But Travis cared little if there was a trail. Nell picked her way among exposed roots, over a mossy trunk, skirted a vigorous, newly sprouted poison oak vine, and then paused when Doc's house came into view. If houses were cars, she thought, hers would be a Model-T, and Doc's a Ferrari.
     
        It was boomerang-shaped, with the leading edge facing the river so that every room had a river view either due south or to the west.
     
        From now until the sun went down was the best time of day at Doc's house. He and Jessica would be out front on the deck,